Chair, Knee Instructional Course
2026–2028. He helps write what other surgeons are taught — hip osteoarthritis guidelines, implant infection around dental work, the knee courses themselves.
About the surgeon
You do not need a more impressive résumé. You need to know who is holding the saw.
Michele R. D’Apuzzo, MD FAOA, is the University of Miami professor who trains the next hip-and-knee surgeons — and the doctor who will still sit down long enough to hear what you want your life to look like. In English or in Spanish.
4.9 from 544 patients
Otto Aufranc Award · Hip Society
John Insall Award · Knee Society
Fellow, AOA
The opening, said plainly
If this were his mother, the plan would not change.
That is the whole method. Not a slogan painted on a wall. The question he runs before he offers you a date: would I do this operation, this way, on someone I cannot bear to fail?
If the honest answer is wait — you will hear wait, and why. If the honest answer is a partial instead of a total, you will hear that too. The 4.9 from 544 ratings (101 reviews) is what that sounds like from the other chair: he explained, he stayed, he treated us like family.
The awards came later. The habit came first.
The journey — and why it is yours
He did not collect institutions. He collected the rooms that make a first hip safer for you.
He started in Caracas, at Universidad Central de Venezuela, with honors in Surgery and Public Health — already more interested in what happens to a person after the incision than in the incision itself.
Mayo Clinic is where he learned that the unglamorous week before surgery decides a surprising amount of the weeks after. Motion analysis. Research. A Faculty Research Award. The habit of measuring what other people call “obvious.”
The University of Virginia is where he became the resident other residents follow — AOA leadership, outstanding PGY-4 — the years you want in the person who will stand at your hip at 7:40 a.m.
Hospital for Special Surgery is the fellowship that trains America’s joint-replacement elite. He was named Best Clinical Fellow. Then he did the rare thing: he did not turn that into a private brand in another city. He came to Miami, stayed in the academy, and now directs the fellowship that produces the next ones.
Why Caracas matters to youHe already speaks the language of this city.
Not just Spanish. The instinct to treat the whole family in the room — the daughter who booked the visit, the husband who is afraid.
Why Mayo matters to youHe is obsessed with the week before the operation.
Glucose. Vitamin D. Wearables. Same-day pathways. Director of Quality and Safety is a job description, not a plaque.
Why HSS matters to youFirst-time hip and knee work from the same hands.
The standard does not split when it is your first replacement.
Why Miami matters to youThe professor is still in the clinic.
He did not outsource your case to a team you will never meet. He trains the fellows. He still sits with you.
The human element
“I treat every patient like they are a member of my own family.”
People repeat that sentence in reviews because they felt it — not because it was on a website. He operates on both of someone’s knees and they mention that he is humble. He replaces a hip and they mention that he was available after. He tells a couple the truth and they come back together.
The same instinct sent him out with Operation Walk — pro bono joint replacement in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and here — because a destroyed hip does not become less urgent when the passport changes. He still lectures across Latin America in the language he grew up in. If your mother is more herself in Spanish, so is this consultation.
That is why people ask for him specifically. Not because a robot is in the room. Because the person holding it will still pick up the question you are afraid is “too small.”
The record, if you need it
The field already voted. Twice.
Almost no one holds both namesake awards in adult reconstruction. He does. That is the specialty talking to itself — not a tagline.
Otto Aufranc AwardThe Hip Society, 2026 — among the highest honors in hip surgery.
John Insall AwardThe Knee Society, 2014 — named for the father of modern knee replacement.
Fellow, American Orthopaedic AssociationThe oldest orthopedic association in the United States. Roughly one in ten is invited.
Alpha Omega AlphaThe honor medical society, 2024.
HSS Clinical ExcellenceBest Clinical Fellow, Adult Reconstruction, 2014.
AAOS Achievement AwardAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Professor · Fellowship Director
ACGME Adult Reconstruction Fellowship. Quality and Safety for Joint Replacement. Leadership Steering Committee. Patient Experience committee — because the hallway is part of the operation.
President, Miami Orthopedic Society
2024–2026. Secretary/Treasurer of the Florida Orthopaedic Society. The local standard, not a visiting name.
For referring physicians
Send the case you would send to HSS.
Primary hip and knee replacement. Outpatient arthroplasty. AVN. Records and films can precede the visit. He will tell your patient the same thing he would tell you.
Referring physicians only. Patients: call Tower West or SoLé Mia, or book at UHealth. Do not email for emergencies.
Tower West (305) 689-2663 · SoLé Mia (305) 256-4334
For the person in pain
You already know enough to sit down.
Bring the films if you have them. Bring the question you have been carrying. Leave with a yes, a not-yet, or a different plan.